43. How Can God Forgive Sin?

How Can God Forgive Sin? Can God, then, forgive sin? If He can, He must, of course, do it outright, for nothing else could be forgiveness. But isn’t this Priestley’s plausible philosophy thrusting itself upon us again? This is precisely what he argues that God does with our sin. But does He? In the nature of things, outright forgiveness of sin is eternally impossible with God. For in doing that He would have to annul the penalty, and if He should do that, He would cease to condemn sin, and if that was done, He would consent to it! Or turn it around the other way. If God cannot consent to sin, He must condemn it. If He condemns committed sin, the only way He can do it is by penalty. If He pronounces a penalty on sin He must execute it. For a penalty merely threatened, but not executed, is not penalty at all; it is warning only. It cannot possibly become penalty unless it is executed. If forgiveness sets aside the penalty, sin is not condemned, and it therefore receives consent. And if it is executed, forgiveness is forever too late. If this is not obvious, nothing can be. But go a little deeper into these axioms of government, and see what would happen if God should forgive sin.

First, He would take away the execution of the penalty, which means that He would be taking away the penalty itself.

Then to set aside the execution of the penalty would be to abolish the law of which it is the sanction. For the moment the penalty is removed from a law, it ceases to be a law, and becomes mere exhortation or advice. Take away the penalty from the law against stealing, and thieves would have our valuables before tomorrow morning. And to abolish the law of God’s moral government would be to abolish His will, and thus both His holiness and His love, and what a wreck the universe would then bel How can men arrive at such conclusions as Priestley arrived at? But to put it in still another light. The moment sin occurs, two moral forces are set in opposition to each other: the will of God, and the will of the creature; or God’s law and sin.

One of these forces must conquer. If God’s law does not conquer sin, then sin will conquer His law. There would then be at least a part of the universe which he could not control. And if His absolute sovereignty could not be maintained everywhere, He could not insure a condition of welfare and happiness anywhere.

Therefore God must not let sin conquer His will, and so there is no alternative but for His will to conquer sin. For that which would trample God’s will under foot, must itself be put under foot. That which would condemn His law, must itself be condemned. That which would put Him off the throne, must itself be dethroned.

Then can God forgive sin? Not until He ceases to condemn it and begins to consent to it, and He will never do that until He ceases to love!

It is no wonder, then, that Socrates cried out in despair: “Plato! Plato! It may be that Deity can forgive sins, but I do not see how!” This is the problem with which the greatest minds this world ever saw have wrestled, and not one of them ever came nearer to its solution than Socrates did. If there is any power in the mind of any man to overthrow these conclusions, the way is wide open for some one to come forward and undertake it. But it will never be done, for they are lifted straight up from the Word of God, and they are axioms to the mind of man. When love deals with sin, it will not be forgiven, it will be condemned by the execution of the penalty (Romans 8:3, R.V.).